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June 2017

On Wednesday night, our Kitchener-Waterloo chapter hosted a Town Hall meeting about Pharmacare at First United Church in Waterloo. The successful event will hopefully lead to a follow up event in the fall so if you missed this one – stay tuned!

On Wednesday June 28th, Council of Canadians staff and supporters joined Solidarity Halifax to 'Expose 150'. We handed out fliers to drivers as they waited at the lights after getting off the MacDonald Bridge in Halifax.

The event was organized in support of the Indigenous peoples for whom the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation is not a day of patriotic celebration, but a day of mourning and resistance.

The intention was to expose the truth of the Canadian government’s shameful history of exploitation and genocide.

Together we handed out information to drives, and demanded that the Canadian government, immediately engage in a process of meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous nations. We were calling observers to respectfully challenge all Canadians to consider their own rights and responsibilities as Treaty People.

The Trudeau government has approved a "tailings management facility" in the upper tributaries of Teigen and North Treaty creeks (which form part of the Nass River drainage system) near Stewart, British Columbia. That means that these water bodies will be used for the disposal of tailings.

This would occur through the infamous Schedule 2 provision.

In 2002, the Harper government allowed a loophole in the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations of the Fisheries Act, giving the green light to mining companies to dump their toxic waste into lakes and creeks. Originally introduced under the former Liberal government and intended only to apply to lakes already dead, Schedule 2 allows for the reclassification of a lake as a 'tailings impoundment area' no longer protected by the Fisheries Act.

A Reuters news story says ING Bank is refusing to finance Canadian pipeline and tar sands projects due to concerns over climate change and First Nations rights.

"Dutch lender ING Groep NV has said it would not finance any of Canada's major pipeline projects, including TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL and Energy East and Enbridge Inc's Line 3, after pressure from activists."

There is no clear commitment from the Trudeau government to put pipeline or powerline reviews for these waterways back into the Navigation Protection Act.

The list of broken election promises by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is growing longer, with another one added last week.

Last Tuesday, the Trudeau government tabled its response to the House Committee on Transport, Infrastructure, and Communities’ recommendations on the Navigation Protection Act (NPA), formerly the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA).

The Red Deer Chapter tabled at the Central Alberta Social Work Conference (CASWC) on June 15-16 in Red Deer. The Chapter had a table both days and handed out information on the important work that the Council of Canadians is doing.

Pat Couture of the Red Deer chapter says "Attending this conference was a good fit with Social Work as we are both involved in social justice issues. We also used the opportunity to network with other organizations at the conference to raise our profile in the community. We're looking forward to attending again next year".

Thanks to the Red Deer for connecting with community and spreading the word about critical issues!

The Council of Canadians was at the annual River Run event in Toronto in June 2016 demanding justice for Grassy Narrows.

The Council of Canadians is celebrating the long overdue announcement that the mercury contamination at the Grassy Narrows (Asubpeechoseewagong) First Nation in northern Ontario will be cleaned up.

The Toronto Star reports, "The Ontario government is committing $85 million to finally clean up the mercury-contaminated Wabigoon River that has poisoned the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation and nearby Whitedog First Nation for generations. The 'comprehensive remediation action plan' will also involve finding all contaminated sites that could be leaking mercury into the river."

“We recognize and respect First Nations’ decisions to ban tar sands pipelines and tankers from their territories and we offer our support and solidarity in upholding the Save the Fraser Declaration.” - Maude Barlow, December 5, 2013.

The Council of Canadians has endorsed Idle No More's "UNsettling Canada 150" call to action. That call includes these three demands:

1- A new open truly Nation-to-Nation recognition process that begins by fully recognizing Indigenous land rights and their decision-making power throughout their territories.